Despite exasperation from church and shrinks, Georgians watch their soaps
By Shorena Labadze
Tuesday, June 24
Soap operas are a staple diet for millions of television viewers in countries the world over and Georgia is no exception.
Their allure has been the subject of psychological study for years and, in Georgia at least, a concern for another societal fixture: the church.
Emotional attachment
Georgian analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze, a psychologist by training, explains the attraction of soaps as playing into the human desire to be in touch with emotion.
“Soap operas are mostly watched by people who have colorless, monotonous lives. The human being is a creature that needs emotion as food,” he remarks, adding that the human is more receptive to negative and violent emotions than positive ones.
One Georgian viewer of daytime TV, 33-year-old housewife Nazibrola Imedashvili, says she tunes in for her soap fix because there’s little alternative when it comes to passing the time.
“Even if I don’t want to watch, I have no choice—I’m already like an alcoholic,” Imedashvili says. “It’s stupidity and it brainwashes us but there is no choice. We don’t have to pay money to watch the television.”
Last year, television presenter Maia Asatiani visited soap star Mario Cimarro in Mexico, passing on the best wishes of his many Georgian female admirers.
One, a street vendor from the eastern province of Kakheti, sent the Cuban-born hunk a pair of warm knitted mountain socks. In return, Cimarro blew an on-screen kiss back to his South Caucasian devotees.
The Georgian character
Ramaz Sakvarelidze says Georgians are particularly disposed to soaps because of their strong attachment to the emotional.
He says different nations exhibit different proclivities towards rationality and emotionality.
Whereas Germans, he says, are more inclined toward rationality, Georgians are inclined to emotionality, behavior which pervades even (or especially) politics here.
Viewers, on the other hand, often say soaps are simply a form of escapism. Dodo Khamashuridze, a 59-year-old housewife, says it isn’t about the plot, but the beautiful actors, exquisite houses and well-shot landscapes.
This opinion isn’t limited to bored housewives. Karlo the builder, 53, shares Dodo’s passion and likes nothing more than to unwind after a heavy day of lifting and shifting by switching on a good soap.
“When I come home from work exhausted, I can’t watch something that needs much concentration… I want something light and I find that in soap operas,” he says.
“Besides, it always stops at a critical moment, leaving you wanting the next part.”
Religion
Not everyone sees soaps as harmless fun. Prior Bartlome, a monk at Tbilisi Tabori Mountain Transfiguration Monastery, argues that they trivialize the concept of love and make viewers’ lives spiritually poorer.
“At first sight the main theme of these films is love. Our religion preaches love; this is the only power which keeps a person alive,” he says.
“But in the soap operas everything is simplified, love is degraded to an animal instinct. Characters change the object of their love daily. It is only corporeal passion and has nothing to do with true love,” Prior Bartlome continues.
He also warns that the characters in soaps are enslaved to their passions while viewers are themselves enslaved to their habit of religiously watching the shows.
It isn’t all bad news, however. Prior Bartlome notes that having watched several episodes none of the characters have opted to have an abortion after falling pregnant.
But he worries that while in the TV shows mothers put children first, viewers may neglect their own offspring when they sit down for a dose of escapism.
Meanwhile, soap opera fans show no sign of changing their ways.
“I don’t even want to think about why soap operas are to my taste,” says Nino, a 23-year-old English teacher. “And I try not to think about it. Just watch. That’s all.”